Summits represent the pinnacle of Nepal’s tourism industry. Expeditions make headlines, whether they succeed or fail.
Climbers endure hardship to conquer the highest peaks, capture hard-won photos, and earn entrance to an exclusive club. So, it is refreshing and exciting to find a constellation of new tourism stars twinkling in The Anti Expedition, a documentary by director Elena Jean (pictured below) at KIMFF 2026.
This short documentary is shot on location in Rowaling Valley to ponder the future of Nepal's adventure tourism sector. The story begins in 1971, with a film called Ferden Til Tseringma, when a trio of Norwegian climbers cross the Himalaya but refuse to climb the peaks. They seek joy in the journey and demonstrate restraint and respect by not trammeling on Nepal’s most sacred, forbidden peaks like Mt Tseringma, also known as Gauri Shankar.
That idea grips Bob Henderson, a Canadian outdoor educator. He brings a trio to Nepal 50 years after the Norwegians to find the people whose traditional resilience, hospitality, and deeply held beliefs so inspired those summit refusers a half-century ago. On arrival, they find that only 65 people remain in a once bustling village of Beding, below sacred Mt Tseringma.
Henderson screens the 1971 film in Beding, causing great delight as youthful selves and family members appear. This scene raises an interesting question: if The Anti Expedition is screened 50 years from now, would there be any people left in Beding, or would most have migrated to the city or abroad?
Then and now are juxtaposed through intercuts of fascinating archival and contemporary footage. The west face of Mt Tseringma, once covered in a thick icecap, now rises into the sky jagged and bare due to global warming. The people who live in her shadow tell us why this is happening, through an unforgettable tale of a transforming world.
Henderson asks, “What do stories mean when they’re not being told?” If media highlights successful climbs, it takes away attention from the places at the base of the mountains. Tourists are pulled by tales of celebrity mountaineers and famous peaks and not local people and their cultures.
Modern connectivity has already cut what used to be an eight day Rolwaling trek to three days.
Roads now bypass many villages once only accessible on foot. Still, village life has an allure for tourists, even as inhabitants empty into cities. By refusing to centre all meaning on the ‘conquest’ of peaks, the film takes viewers through celebrations with a joyful guide, a Rinpoche, and his people.
Nepal’s mountains are more than their peaks, these are landscapes alive with life and stories. Chasing records and new extreme climbs makes headlines that eclipse the real Nepal.
The Anti Expedition is an exciting invitation for viewers to consider a different next 50 years.
In this version, top billing goes to stories and traditional ecological knowledge that undergird life in Nepal’s remote villages. We encounter a vast unknown terrain filled with human activity, sustainable lifeways, animals, waterfalls, and land brimming with meaning. The villages resound with calls to hospitality, dance, song, and blessings amid personal discovery.
We are invited to envision policies that support this potential, so these lifeways are not lost.
Hopefully the room in Beding will not be empty in the year 2056.
The Anti Expedition
Directed by Elena Jean
40 min | Canada / Nepal | 2025
29 May, 6:30pm